"Don’t forget that we are born of the same land as Ulysses, made for travels and adventures, captains and fighters and explorers at the same time. Even when events don’t provoke us, we provoke events to happen. The artist, from wherever he comes, is born much like Ulysses."

"For me, the power of sculpture is evident the instant I see it. I feel a connection with it long before I might be able to touch it. We live in a three dimensional world; light, shadow and bifocal vision tell us that something is big, heavy and real."

"We generally have a limited understanding of the black male nude as an artistic subject. In my practice, painting the figure entails encountering and interrogating the heroizing, idealizing tradition of the nude in Western Art in which black and brown bodies have been objectified and dehumanized. I’m part of a generation of artists picking up this mantel, locating ourselves as artists, models, and subjects, and working to remake what the nude does and how it produces meaning."

Countries in the Middle East vary a lot. for instance, there is a great difference between Dubai and Afghanistan, but professional women are oppressed all over the world in many ways. I myself have faced a lot of obstacles being a woman artist, yet I knew that women can do everything men could do. The more men have told me, "you can't do that," the more I had to prove them wrong. I had to hold it up for all women who looked up to me to be brave and courageous. We defend our artworks with our fists and our crazy courage. When you have guys that disrespect you, you're gonna have to teach them a lesson, otherwise they are going to keep walking all over you. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is out there; it's not easy. But this also reflects views of the art world in general.

I’m offering a world where anything is possible and there is no doubt that magic does happen because the magic is real. All of the fables and stories you read as a kid are not only the reality, they are an everyday part of life.

These women wear their wounds with pride. Every solution in life requires a struggle. The mistakes of the pasts, the wounds of pain and loss, and the icy stabs of betrayal. And yet none of these specters weigh them down or define their destinies.